Lightning Lab Digital 2014: Wellington

Taking off

The 2014 class was made up of ten teams and 35 entrepreneurs. Wellington Digital Accelerator participants were selected from a wide range of applications from all over New Zealand and places as far flung as Ukraine, Vietnam and New York.

This class received the support of more than 50 mentors during the programme, who tirelessly worked to coach, teach and develop them into the promising young ventures we saw pitch on stage during Demo Day. Mentors from 2014 included Suse Reynolds, Steve O’Connor, Amanda Santos, John Holt and Trevor Dickinson.

Teams lived and breathed not just their own startup world each day, but the highs and lows of the entire Lightning Lab cohort. From bouncing ideas off other founders to sleeping in the lab or taking a mental break together over drinks, a new type of family was quickly formed over the three months.

We had access to some of the brightest, most hardworking and creative minds in NZ and overseas who were always happy to follow up and discuss our business… their insights have been invaluable for us to learn from people who have been there, done that and who openly shared their experience, success and failures.

Ian Bishop, Coachseek

Lightning Lab has been pivotal for us. During the programme we evolved from two guys hacking in our bedrooms to full blown entrepreneurs who are taking on the world.

Before, we had no network. Now, we’re embedded in the startup scene in New Zealand and have contacts all over the world. Lightning Lab truly was a life changing experience.

Mike Neumegen, CloudCannon

Ventures

CLOUDCANNON

CloudCannon is the easiest way for web designers to deploy, host and maintain websites for clients.

It doesn’t require any programming and fits in with the web designer’s existing workflow.

COACHSEEK

Coachseek helps sports coaches manage their business better.

Simple and easy to use, it helps coaches with all their scheduling, billing, messaging and client management. We take all the admin pain away so sports coaches can do more of what they love!

COGO

Cogo is a lightweight knowledge management system for SMEs.

It integrates with the tools employees already use, allowing them to easily retain knowledge: making it searchable, accessible, and durable.

COMMONLEDGER

CommonLedger is a universal translator of accounting data, making accountants’ software and compliance easy.

FLOC

Floc is a smartphone app that utilizes urban cellphone data to build predictive models around how hospitality operators will be affected by pedestrian traffic over a given time-frame such as the next few hours, or days.

GLASSJAR

Glassjar is a software platform for managing shared expenses and making group payments.

It has been launched to the rental market to help tenants create group accounts that are able to pay for all shared expenses, without the need to use cheques.

KEEN

Keen spontaneous matching people to shared activities

MISHGURU

MishGuru makes it easy for brands and agencies to manage Snapchat™ accounts.

TWINGL

Twingl’s mission is to accelerate the evolution of human intelligence: they build tools that make thinking visible.

Twingl is starting in education with their first product, Trailblazer, which makes learning visible.

Trailblazer is a browser for students to do online research. It replaces browser tabs with a map that helps students navigate the web, and helps teachers teach students how to learn.or photo and video contests